The Tale of a Local Business: 32 Years Serving Cincinnati

By Felicia Jordan

Photography by Annette Navarro

Like many businesses in the country these days, salons and spas have had to grow and change with the times to adapt to competition and a changing demand.

A spa visit once meant a lengthy stay, tricky scheduling and a timeline that was more suited to vacations than the average work week. Now, however, day spas and salons have made the process of pampering much simpler and more widely available. Mitchell’s Salon & Day Spa was integral to this change in Cincinnati when they brought the first tanning bed to the city in 1986, three years after the grand opening of owner Deborah Mitchell Schmidt’s first Mitchell’s Salon.

Since then, the company has grown from its beginnings as a salon run out of a house in Montgomery staffed by 10 employees. Now, the company boasts five locations, all still locally owned and operated, throughout Greater Cincinnati.

“We were one of the first salon and day spa combinations in Cincinnati,” says Logan Schmidt, vice president of marketing for Mitchell’s Salon & Day Spa. “Over the years we’ve worked to stay on the cutting edge of trends and make sure we’re bringing in the best products for our clients.”

This model consistently retains not only satisfied clients, but staff members who love their jobs as well. Schmidt says some of today’s staff members started with the company shortly after it was founded. “We’re kind of a little family inside these walls,” says Schmidt.

During the last 32 years, Mitchell’s has incorporated extensive training and workshops for all employees to ensure that they will become the best at their craft. Newly hired stylists spend nine months in an apprenticeship with the company to help them hone their specialties while assisting staff members.

“Once they pass their checkpoints and work on their specific amount of models, each new hire has to audition for their spot on the floor,” says Schmidt. This rigorous hiring process ensures that every stylist is able to ensure the quality Mitchell’s has guaranteed for more than three decades. From there, employees are given work based on their training level and continue their education with others at their level, participating in workshops that consist of theory and hands on activity. These workshops are often taught by world-renowned experts, and many stylists at Mitchell’s are sent on trips to the headquarters of top product brands to determine what they would like to learn and what they think would add to the company.

Each detail of the structure of today’s Mitchell’s Salon & Spa perpetuates not only a happy workplace for employees, but a solid reputation for quality in the community as well. “Over time, we’ve worked to earn – and have earned – the trust of our clients and Cincinnati in general,” says Schmidt.

This trust was certainly well deserved by the locally owned company that began in a small house and exploded into a multi-location success story. With so much promise in the salon’s name, it’s no wonder employees and clients alike are dedicated to Mitchell’s.

Mitchell’s Salon & Day Spa has five locations in Greater Cincinnati. You can reach them at 513.793.0900 or visit their website at www.mitchellssalon.com.